An 84-year-old man shoots his son. So what does his grandson do, according to authorities, in his own father's defense?

Shoot -- fatally, it turns out -- his grandfather.

That's what authorities said happened Monday night in Kittrell, a small North Carolina town of less than 500 people located about 35 miles south of the Virginia border.

Vance County sheriff's deputies responded around 7 p.m. to an address there after getting a call about a fight, Sheriff Peter White said in a news release.

When they got there, deputies found two people shot.

One was Lloyd Woodlief, 84, who lived at the Kittrell home, according to White. He had been shot once with a 12-gauge shotgun and "died shortly thereafter," the sheriff said.

His son, 49-year-old Lloyd Peyton Woodlief, had been shot with a 22-caliber pistol, added White. The resident of nearby Henderson, North Carolina, was being treated at Duke Medical Center in Durham as of Tuesday afternoon.

The other person involved was the 11-year-old grandson of Lloyd Woodlief.

White said a preliminary investigation indicates that Lloyd Woodlief first shot his son. Then the 11-year-old boy shot his grandfather.

Charges are pending, the sheriff added, though he didn't specify who might be charged, or with what.